Corbyn attacks Trump’s ‘tragic, shocking’ migrant policy

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during a memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square in London, on April 23, 2018.(Photo by AFP)

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has denounced as “tragic and shocking” US President Donald Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their families at US-Mexico border.

The opposition leader said in a tweet on Tuesday that Trump’s immigration policy of zero tolerance was “immoral” as the process meant border guards separating children from their parents.

“It's tragic and shocking to see innocent children caged like animals at US migrant camps and to hear their cries of anguish after being forcibly separated from their parents,” Corbyn wrote.

“It's immoral and goes against fundamental human rights we must always respect, no matter the situation,” he added.

The British Prime Minister Theresa May also distanced herself from Trump’s immigration policy, saying that the UK approach was more “humane.”

The UN Human Rights Council blasted on Monday Trump’s new policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the US-Mexican border, calling it “unconscionable” and akin to child abuse.

Central American migrants, including a Honduran girl, 2, and her mother, are taken into custody near the US-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. (Photo by AFP)

The Trump administration's policy of separating families was announced April 6 and went into effect in May. Previously, people who entered the country illegally and had no criminal record were detained or referred for deportation, and mothers and children usually remained together.

Nearly 2,000 immigrant children were separated from parents over a period of about six weeks in April and May, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The number is a dramatic uptick from the nearly 1,800 family separations from October 2016 through February 2018.

Currently, there are over 10,000 children being detained in the United States.